The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1887-05-20
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
A Discourse Full of Comfort to
the Afflicted and Distressed.
A sprig of Heart's-Ease for the wounded
Spirit-Chrst the Comforter, the
Ever-Present Help I'm Time OF
Trouble and Distress.

Rev. r. De Witt Talmage, in a recent
sermon at the Brooklyn Tabernacle, ad-
dressed his words more particularly to
those on whom the hand of sorrow and
af1iction had been heavily laid, taking for
his text:
And his discipl es went and told jesus
Matthew, xiv, u.
An outrageous assassination had Just
taken place. To appease a revengefu1
woman KING Herod ordered the death Of
that noble, self-sacrifcing Christian, John
the Baptist. The group of the disciples
Was thrc wn into grief and dismay. They
felt themselves utterly defenseless. There
was no authority to which they could ap-
peal, and yet grief must always find ex-
preston. If there be no human ear to
hear it, then the agonized soul will cry it
aloud to the winds, and the woods, and
the waters. But there was an ear that
was willing to listen. There is a tender
pathos, and at the same time a most ad-
mirable picture, in the words Of my text:
They went and told Jesus.
He could understand all their grief and
he Immediately soothed it. Our burdens
are not more than half so heavy to carry
If another is thrust under the other end
IF them. Here we find Christ, his brow
Swallowed with grief, standing amid the
group of disciples, who, with tears and
violent gesticulations, and wringing of
hands, and outcry of bereavement are
expressing their woe. Raphael, with his
skillful brush putting upon the wall of
palace some scene of a sacred story,
gave not so skillful a stroke as when the
plain hand of the evangelist writes:
They went and told Jesus.
The old Goths and Vandals once came
down upon Italy from the north of Eu-
rope, and they upset the gardens, and
they broke down the aItars, and swept
away every thing that was good and
beautiful So there is ever and anon in
the history of all the sons and daughters
of our race an incursion of rough-handed
troubles that come to plunder and ran
sack and put to the torch all that men
highly prize. There is no cave so deeply
cleft into the mountains as to allow US
shelter, and the foot of fieetest courser
can not bear US beyond the quick pursuit.
The arrows they put to the string fly with
unerring dart, until we fall pierced and
stunned
feel that 1 bring to you a most appro-
pirate message. l mean to bind up all
your griefs into bundle, and set them on
fire with a spark from Gods altar. The
same prescription that cured the sorrows
of the disciples will cure all your heart
aches. l have read that when Godfrey
and his army marched out to capture Je-
rusalem, as they came over the hills, at
the ufSb ndSH OF Ju0 pluuaCleS OF Judb
beautiful city, the army that had marched
in silence lifted a shout that made the
earth tremble.
o, you soldiers of Jesus Christ, march
ing on toward heaven, l would that to-
dav, by somo CLEAN from the palace of
Gods mercy and Gods strength, you
might be lifted into great rejoicing, and
that before this service is ended you
might raise one glad hosanna to the Lord
In the first place, l commend the behav-
ior of these disciples to all those in this
audience who are sinful and unpardoned.
There comes a time in almost every
mans history when he feels from some
source that he has an erring nature. The
thought may not have such heft as to fell
him 1t may be only like the fash in an
evening cloud just after very hot sum-
mer day One man, to get rid of that i'm
preston, will go to prayer; another will
stimulate himself by ardent spirits, and
another man will dive deeper in seculari-
ties. But sometimes a man can not get
rid of these impressions. The fact is,
when man finds out that his eternity is
poised upon a perfect uncertainty, and
that the next moment his foot may slip,
he must do some thing violent to make
himself forget where he stands, or else
fly for refuge.
If there are any here who have resolved
that they would rather die of this awful
cancer of sin than to have the heavenly
surgeon cut it out let me say, my dear
brother, you mingle for yourself bitter
cup. You fly in the face of your everlast-
ing interests. You crodch under a yoke
and you bite the dust, when, this moment,
! you might rise up a crowned c0nqueror.
| Driven and perplexed and harras sed as
| you have been by sin, go and tell Jesus.
To relax the grip of death from your
soul, and plant your unshackled feet
| upon the golden throne, Christ let the
| tortures of the bloody mount transfx
him. With the beam of his own cross he
will break down the door of your own
| dungeon. From the thorns of his own
crown he will pick enough gems 10 make
/ your brow blaze with eternal victory. In
/ every tear on his wet cheek, in every cash
| of his side, in every long, blackening
mark of laceration from shoulder to
shoulder, in the grave-shattering, heav-
en-storming death groan, 1 hear him
say:
Him that cometh unto me I viii in no wise
cast out.
1t is folly for you to say to some one:
'Oh," but you say, INSTEAD Of curing
my wound you want to make another
| wound, namely, that of conviction!'
Have you never known a surgeon TO
/ come and find a chronic disease, and then
| with sharp caustic burn it all outf SO the
grace of God comes to the old sore of sin.
1t has long been ranking there, but by
/ Divine grace it is burned out through
| these fires of conviction, 'tthe flesh com
| ing again as the flesh of a little child -
sswhere sin abounded, grace much more
aboundeth." With the 10000 unpardoned
sins Of your life go and tell Jesus. You
| will never get rid of your sins in any
other way; and remember that the broad
| invitation which / extend to you will not
always be extended.
King Alfred, before modern tim epieces
| were invented, used to divide the day into
| three parts, eight hours each, and then
| had three wax candles. By the time the
first candle had burned to the socket
eight hours had gone, and
when the second candle had
| burned to the socket another eight hours
had gone, and when all the three candles
were gone out then the day had passed
Oh. that some Of US, instead Of calculating
our days and nights and years bS any
earthly timepiece, might calculate them
by the numbers of opportunities and
mercies which are burning down and
at last we be amid the foolish virgins
who cried:
Our lamps have gone out.
Again, commend the behavior Of the
disciples to all who are tempted. / have
heard men in mid life say they had never
been led into tenn mptation- If you have not
felt temptation it is because you have not
tried to do right A man hoppled and
handcuffed, as long as he lies quietly
does not test the power Of the ch ain; but
when he rises up, and with determination
resolves to snap the handcuh or break
the hopple, then he finds the power Of tn
iron. And there are men who have beer
for ten, and twenty, and thirty years
bound hand and foot By evil hasits whC
have never fe.t the power Of the chain
because they have never tried TO break 1t
Il is very easy 10 90 on dowa with tht
| ntrnnrn and with the wind. 1Yfng On Youl